Young Keeners in Ottawa

Young Keeners in Ottawa

a Carolina Paddler Article

by Alton Chewning

-Max Culbreth would find himself on the sidelines of the river sometimes as his friend in playboats did their gaudy moves, the blunts and spins and aerials.  Max was a good paddler, the son of parents who both loved to paddle.  He just wasn’t quite sure how to do the tricks with his Rockstar that he saw others doing.

Max’s mom, Elizabeth Gardner, took note of his eagerness to do more.  She shopped around and found a summer skills class that answered the need, the Keener Program.  Three weeks of playboat intensive skills training on the Ottawa River in Canada.  Not cheap but affordable if Max was really interested.  Max had friends who had attended Keener and said it was fun and they learned tons of tricks.  He also studied videos about the school and the runs. Elizabeth asked if he wanted to try. “YES!  Thank you, Mom, Dad.”

The family thought it might be good to pair Max with another young boater friend so Colin Godwin and father, Jon, were asked about it.  Jon’s a long time CCC paddler and instructor and Colin, like Max, was raised in the club.  They are both 15, rising sophomores in high school.

Colin knew a little about Keeners.  Young CCC paddlers like Seth Cox and Sam Fleming had been to Ottawa.  Colin noted, “They had gotten really good at playboating and really good at boating in general. It looked like something fun to do.  Still, I probably wasn’t going if Max didn’t go.”  Would Max go without a buddy?  Max remembered, “I think so. It was really small and you kinda knew everybody pretty soon.”  When Colin and family agreed there was no question; the guys were going.

What did our young CCC paddlers expect to gain from this?  What were their concerns?   Both boys had good combat rolls, a prerequisite for going.  Max: “I was really looking forward to it.  All my friends are good at playboating, and I didn’t have many playboating tricks so I really wanted to learn some tricks.”  Colin wanted to learn all sorts of boating and safety skills and to generally get better as a paddler.

They both had some trepidations. Colin: “I had no idea what I was about to get into so I was watching a bunch of videos to see what the camp was like.  What we would be doing.  Specifically, I watched a lot of Beatdown Thursday videos because I was pretty nervous about that. It intimidated me quite a bit”. The word “Beatdown” wasn’t lost on Max either, “I was nervous about Beatdown Thursday when they would take you to a big hole.  That was kinda scary. “

The parents did a good job of preparing their young paddlers for the trip.  The families paddled together several days during Week of Rivers and then more on the Lower Yough on the drive up to Ottawa.  When they arrived, they were assigned to different cabins but still saw each other every day on the river.  And they made many new friends.

The Keener program is part of the Ottawa Kayak School, a division of Wilderness Tours.  Years ago, Jerry Marquis, an instructor/manager on the WT Hudson River site, would pick his best students to come to the Ottawa for special training.  He chose the most devoted, the “keen” and enthusiastic.  Out of this grew the Keener program.  Although Jerry died in 1984, the tradition he started lives on.  Many of the world’s best paddlers come through here, people like Ken Whiting and James Roddick.  Keeners have some top-notch guest instructors such as Claire O’Hara, Eric and Dane Jackson and Bren Orton.

What’s it like?  Max said, “The classes are small.  Ours was a little larger, 22 students but by the third day you knew everybody’s names.”  Colin and Max described the make-up of the class, “Four girls, the rest boys.  Five from Canada, four from North Carolina.  2 kids from New Hampshire, one from Maine, several from Maryland and Virginia and four or five from Colorado.”  The youngest was 13 or 14, most were 15-17. 

Students are expected to supply their own river gear:  kayak, PFD, skirt, helmet, and paddle which were no problem for Max and Colin, since they drove up.  Students flying in could rent gear locally.  Playboats are the name of the game.  Colin had a Jitsu 5.9.  Max a Rock Star II.  Most people had Rock Stars with a Zed and Super Nova tossed in.

When the students arrive, cabins are assigned.  The cabin names read like a world traveler’s itinerary:  White House, Istanbul, Casino, Yakistan.  Robertson was connected to the Thunderdome, the hang-out area. Students aren’t allowed to visit other cabins, so the Thunderdome is the common area. Responsibilities were laid out.  Each cabin had a kitchen, and the campers were responsible for cooking their own breakfast.  Groceries were supplied.  Colin recalled, “After breakfast, we had to clean up, sweep the floors, clean bathrooms, porches, sometimes the Thunderdome hang-out.  We had to do this ourselves, the instructors would not help.”  Campers were responsible for keeping all their paddle gear together and in good shape.

The Keeners did have guidance. “Keener Moms,” one on duty during the week and a different one on weekends, were there for advice and help.  Colin: “They would make sure our cabins were clean.  Take care of us.  You could ask questions.  Like if you were having health problems.”  With so much of the Keeners’ time spent in the water, foot and ear health was critical.  Colin, “They taught us how to take care of our feet.  Of our ears.  They had medicine if you get foot rot or ear infection.”

Health and Safety are important tenets of the Keener program.  Each student is required to complete certification for CPR/Wilderness First Aid and SRT Swiftwater Rescue.    These can be completed prior to the camp or be an additional part of the course.  Safety is paramount.  No one paddles alone at Keeners.  Sign ins and outs are required on the weekends.

Students without prior certification take First Aid training on the weekends with special instructors coming in, usually on Sunday. For the Swiftwater training, Colin mentioned, “We would go to a pour-over and practice swimming a pour over and getting re-circed.  If you did get recirculated, you would flush out and end up in a pool just below.  We learned about live bait.  Getting a boat stuck in a pour over.”

An army travels on its stomach.  What about the Keener army?  Max: “Lunch on the river. We grilled our own burgers.” Colin: “After we came off the rivers we’d go back to the cabins, take showers if we wanted to, which most people did, thankfully.  After that we would get on the bus and head on over to WT [Whitewater Tours], which was the main campus.”  Max: “That where’s they had this big pavilion thing where they served food.  Two volleyball courts, a basketball court, which was fun.”   Colin: “We would go in lunch lines, and they would serve us.  A lot of chicken.  Some steak too.  We called it “bone chicken,” thighs and legs.  Desserts.  You could buy other things like drinks, ice cream.”  Max: “The food was not great.  Had to eat there every night.” Except weekends.  Colin: “On Fridays we would have pizza and eat at Keenerville, where we lived. On Saturdays we would have tacos.”

We now have a feel for the off-river part of the camp.  What about the days on the water? The Keener Program focuses on “youth development through kayaking.”  The program encourages competition with weekly contests and training for bigger events.  Some days were devoted to skills practice and others revolved around competitions.

Colin explained: “On Mondays, we would usually go down river, stopping at Garburator, Push Button, Babyface, Corner Wave, McCoy’s.  A down river day.  Surfing a bunch.  Wednesdays were Race days.  Thursdays were Beatdown.  Fridays were Funky Fresh Freestyle Fridays.”

The Wednesday race days were varied.  Colin: “They would teach us racing mechanics.  The best way to start in a race.  We would do races where we would mass start, or we would race against time, or we would get in groups and do relay races.  We would do swim races where we would go down the rapids swimming.  Or go down the rapids with our legs sticking out of the boats. They would give us every scenario.”

What about the day of the week with the ominous name:  Beatdown Thursday?

Colin: “Before I got there I was dreading the first Thursday.  It got there way faster than I thought it would.  Once that day came, I was nervous the whole time.  …. Once I saw the hole in person it made me really nervous.  I was honestly thinking about asking if I could not do it that day.  Then I saw a bunch of other people doing it and it made me a lot more comfortable.  I went the left side the first time and once I got flipped, I didn’t get tumbled, it made me so much more comfortable.

Max: “It really flushes you out quickly.  You really work to get beat down in it.  I got over my fear quickly.  Went once and got a feel for it and then I was fine.

Colin: “I went another time and another time.  I got tumbled a little bit more each time.  The next Thursday I was ready to do it again.  I was super excited.”

Max explained what made the Ottawa such a great river for learning, “The water was warm.  A bunch of big rapids with no consequences. We got to do the kinda stuff we couldn’t normally do on other rivers because the Ottawa is so safe.  Barely any rocks.  No strainers because the Ottawa is so deep.  Pretty much no consequences.  Everything is pool drop, so if you swim it’s no big deal.”

Colin agreed, “The worse thing that could happen is in the shallow sections, you could scrape up against rocks…. They had safety people below the rapids so if you did swim, they would get your boat and paddle.  I did have to save somebody one time.  People would go in without a paddle and do hand-surfing.  Somebody missed their hand roll and I had to rescue them with a Hand of God.”

The last week’s Beatdown Thursday was on the Gatineau River, a tributary of the Ottawa. Colin corrected, “They called them sister rivers.  Gatineau was definitely bigger than the Ottawa.”  Max: We paddled the Gatineau, at really high water.  A lot of fun.”  Colin: “The first rapid was the biggest.  That was definitely intimidating.  Lucifer’s Hole was this giant hole on the right side that you would go left of. “  Max: “Only one kid did it.  It was so good.  It was huge.  None of the coaches did it.  I can send you a video of it if you want.”  Colin: Personally, I liked it better than the Ottawa. Maybe I like it better because it was our day off from the Ottawa and it was something different to experience.  The Ottawa was not low, but it was lower than it can be.  The Gatineau was at high water.”

Some schools don’t encourage competition.  Keener does as a teaching tool. Colin said the instructors stressed, “We congratulate the winners as well as celebrate the losers.  Because everyone tried.”

Friday were a competition day and a trying day, although with a name of “Funky Fresh Freestyle Fridays” fun was going to be a big part of the event.  Max: “We would go to big holes, often Garburator* and Push Button.  Sometimes the competition took place in McCoy’s Rapid.  The waves used were Corner Wave, Right Side/Left Side Horseshoe and Babyface.  Boaters do three 45 second runs, sometime combining times but for the final competition the best run counted.

*Garburator is a Canadian term for a kitchen sink garbage disposal system

After finishing their runs, the students would go back to the Thunderdome and look at their race videos.  The instructors explained how Free Style competition scoring worked, the point value for each trick, the way bonus points could be earned.  A staffer had recorded every run, and the students reviewed the results, added up points and assigned scores.  Different waves had winners:  Winner of Garb, Winner of Push Button.  Becoming familiar with the scoring systems benefits those students going on to participate in other events, like the Ottawa Kayak Pro/Am.

Max: “First week I didn’t do too well.”  Max missed the second week due to an off-the-river injury.  “By the final week I had new tricks to try.  I got third place on the last day.”

Colin: “Obviously Max is better at tricks and stuff like that.  He did well on the last one.  I didn’t do well on the first two competitions.  Seemed like when they hit Record, I did terrible.  I would immediately get flushed out.  Push Button is an easier wave to do.  Most of the people with lower skill level would go on Push Button.  My third week I went to Garb.  Got more points then.

Weekends were free time.  Max: “On the weekends, you have lots of freedom in what you do.  You don’t have to paddle if you don’t want to.”  Students could organize a paddling group if they wanted.  For safety all paddlers must be accompanied by fellow paddlers and are required to sign in and out.

Keeners are prepared for possible further work as kayak professionals.  Many alumni go on to work for Wilderness Tours or other paddle companies.  Communication skills are stressed, with formal speech making, blog writing and some video training.  Max was hoping for more river videomaking instruction, one of his few disappointments.

Instructors at Keener were critical to the students’ progression.  During the week, instructors work closely with the students.  Stephen Wright was the main instructor/coach.  Clay Wright and Nate Pomeroy were other coaches.  Keener features high level guest instructors too.  Heidi Walsh, a member of the British Freestyle team was there.  So was a student favorite, Tyler Curtis.  Curtis lives in Ottawa and is a five-time Canadian Freestyle Champion.  He treated each student to his book, “Whitewater Chile,” written by Curtis, Marianne Saether and Ben May.

The Payoff

What did our young CCC paddlers get from this program?  Max reflected, “I think I developed a lot as a boater and as a person.  You had to do everything on your own.  There wasn’t much supervision.  It was your responsibility to cook your own breakfast, clean your things, keep it all accounted for.  Make sure gear was ready.  It got me use to relying on myself more when I paddle.”  Colin added, “They said the camp is there to make the kids going there able to be future leaders of the paddling community or leaders in general.  Their goal is to make the Keeners to become better people in general.  As well as better paddlers.”

Max considered, “I pretty much learned what I wanted to learn.  I learned kick flips, how to blunt, how to loop, I got my bow stall better, I got my off-side back hand roll, pretty much all the tricks I wanted to learn, I got. Had a great time.”

Colin shared, “I was scared I would be the worse person there.  Coaches would look down on me.  Not that good.  But they always encouraged you.  They encouraged failure because that’s how you learn. By the end of it I could spin on waves, starting to do roundhouses, blunts and loops.  Got my On and Offside back deck rolls and my back deck hand roll.

Colin is considering a return next year, “I can make a ton of new friends and develop my skills even more.  Already gotten a lot better from being there. Lot of fun. Coaches were a lot of fun.  Great experience.  Recommend it.”

Max mused, “I might go next year.  I don’t know.  I had a really fun group.  I don’t know if the group would be as good, but I love the Ottawa.”

More thoughts on paddler education:

The Keener Program is part of the Wilderness Tours’ Ottawa Kayak School.  An Adult Keener program is also offered.

Two adult CCC members, Jennifer Stockwell and Jasmin Elmore recently attended the Anna Levesque Signature Week clinic at Ottawa.

Many other opportunities are available for youth seeking further instruction, either kayak based like Keener or fully academically certified, such as the semester program at Alzar School, covered recently in two articles in Carolina Paddler.  Our young Keeners, Max and Colin, talked to several students who participated in the traveling, kayak-based high school, World Class Academy

The costs for these and other programs vary widely.